Not A Good Man
by MannixMind
Summary: Begins after season 3 finale. When Rick's group came to Woodberry they took something Martinez would do anything to get back. But when his attempt to steal it back turns into an unplanned kidnapping of Hershel's youngest daughter, both sides get more than they bargained for. M for cursing, violence, and eventual smut.
1. Chapter 1

**Lots of background in this first chapter but I felt like I needed to develop these characters a little bit before I got into the action too much!**

**Takes place immediately following the season three finale.**

**please please please review!**

Chapter 1

-Martinez-

He didn't know how much time had passed, only that the roaring flames had begun to die down into glowing embers. All he wanted to do was stare into the flames until time ended. Everything else, anything else, was too much for him to process.

He'd known the Governor was not a good man. Didn't matter. This wasn't a time for good men. Good men think about others, good men don't ruthlessly eliminate any and all potential threats.

He'd been a good man once. But he learned just how much a world like this could punish you for a good deed, and somewhere between sticking a flathead through his four-year old daughter's skull, and hunting down the 'good-natured' family that snuck their turned son into the safezone he lost the ability to call himself good. He had no use for it now.

But what the Governor had been was safe for those on the in. Woodberry was ordered and safe, which was more than most of those fucks deserved, and for that reason he had no problem with the Gov's less than savory demands. Even with all the fucked up things he'd been required to do, life in Woodberry still gave him a place to escape the things that had taken everything from him.

That all ended this afternoon. After the fucking pacifists they'd brought with them fled at the first sign of trouble he knew the Gov was going to lose his cool. He'd expected him to pick the loudest of the bunch, maybe that whiny Karen bitch and execute her for insubordination to get the rest of the sheep back in line. It's what he would've done.

But instead of controlling them he'd massacred them. Besides bitching out, they hadn't even all been up for an argument. In one blind rage the psychopath sitting across from him now had destroyed everything they had worked to build, and prevented them from ever being able to take out the real threat again.

By the time they'd gotten back to Woodberry the damage was done. The few families that remained were hastily packing everything they could into cars and getting ready to leave. Most everyone had left with the prison crew. He couldn't blame them, even as the rage built in his chest. These people were used to being taken care of. Not only was the prison offering that, but the Gov's stunt that morning had all but insured that the only people left in Woodberry able to fend for themselves were Tyrese and his sister- already half traitors to begin with.

In his anger, he hadn't even thought through what it all meant until Shup came back from the infirmary looking drawn. Of all the people in Woodberry, Shumpert was the one he actually gave a fuck about. They'd known each other Before, just in passing, until the quiet giant had saved his life.

Martinez had been a gym teacher, taught general Phys Ed and coached baseball and wrestling. It wasn't his thing, but every once and a while he'd be put on duty manning the weight room in his free periods. Shup had come in like clockwork everyday during the staff period. He never said much, still didn't, just signed in, nodded hello, and got to his circuit training. It wasn't much interaction, but it was enough for Martinez to know the quiet man's biggest secret. Back in those days, there had been no need to hide it.

When they turned the school into a safezone Shup had been there like most of the rest of the staff. His Liana had seen Shup on rounds and recognized his symptoms at once, slyly passing him off some of Carina's M&Ms. Shumpert worked as a security guard originally, and that ended up saving their lives since he had been given access to the cache of weapons they'd brought into the school 'just in case'. It's hard to make sense of it now, but back in the first days of the panic, people were still concerned with politics, still listening to rules. How else would you have had any debate about whether they should make a 'special exception' to allow guns in the school?

They'd all been in there, all waiting in the gym and different classrooms when all hell broke loose. The VanWicks- fucking vice principal and his cookie cutter family- had smuggled their youngest into the building with a small bite.

"It only got his shoe!" Martinez remembered the mother saying before he bashed her skull in, "barely broke the skin!"

If they'd all been armed and taking care of their shit maybe someone would've just killed the kid and his turned father. But instead they fled, panicked, started screaming loud enough for all the walkers for miles to hear, and opening the doors. That's what did the real damage.

It had been chaos and somehow through the confusion, Martinez had made eye contact with the hulking security guard.

"This way," he'd said, motioning them through the cafeteria kitchens and out to the loading dock. Martinez didn't hesitate. Grabbing Liana and Carina by the wrists, he pulled them through the confusion towards the kitchen.

"Papi that hurts!" he remembered his daughter whining in protest.

"Rina baby, we gotta hurry now come on," he'd responded.

Shup had smoothly taken two rifles out of a cupboard as they passed through the kitchen and had come to a stop by the door to the loading dock.

"Gonna have to be quick," he'd muttered to the Martinez family, "just gotta get in the truck and go.

"Rina baby stay with mami ok?" he'd said gently to his daughter. To this day he still can't figure out why he didn't just tell Liana to pick her up. He must have been too focused on the baseball bat in his hand, on the prospect of what lay outside the door.

The walker had barely closed its teeth around her tiny little ankle before he brought the bat down on its head but it was enough. Four days later his Carina, his heart, had died. Liana's sobs were echoing in his ears when he picked up the screw driver and drove it through his baby girl's eye.

So much of him had died that night, but whatever life Martinez had left he owed to Shup. Now, though the quiet, bearded black man next to him seemed to be his normal, self-contained self, Martinez could see the telltale tremor beginning in his friends hands.

After Carina had died, Liana had stayed alive only to tend to Shup's condition. A nurse till the end, she had a knack for finding what he needed when they went foraging, not just in pharmacies but in houses as well. The day they arrived in Woodberry, with its well stocked infirmary, she'd let go, knowing her family's savior and her husband would be safe. Within two hours of their arrival, she'd put a gun in her mouth and joined her daughter.

Since that day Martinez and Shup had picked through every house, pharmacy, and hospital in the area until they'd secured enough to last Shup and the other Woodberry residents for years. But now it was all gone, all taken to the prison probably by people who didn't realize it'd be needed by anyone but the elderly.

Mentally cursing, he flipped open his bag and handed Shup the last of his candy bars. Shup took it, warily glancing at the Governor, hoping the reminder of his weakness wouldn't stir the pyshopath into any more action.

This method might hold him through the night, maybe the next as well, but Martinez knew, as the last of the embers died away, what needed to be done. He had to break into the prison, and he had to get Shup's insulin back before his only friend left in the world died.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks everyone for your interest! I'll try to be quicker with the next few chapters! Please review!**

Chapter 2

-Martinez-

He waited through the night and into the next morning, growing more and more restless with each passing hour. He didn't want to do anything that would send the Governor flying off the handle, which at this point seemed to be anything that the fallen leader could see as even remotely contradictory, but Shup was a time bomb and at the moment the Gov seemed more concerned with stewing in his own defeat than acting.

He knew people viewed him as nothing more than the Governor's dumb lacky, but over the months he'd spent living under the protection of Woodberry, Martinez had learned, better than anyone he believed, how to manage the man. Sure there were people the Governor had put more store in- Milton, Andrea, even Merle had been more 'important' to the Governor than he had, despite nearly a year of faithful service at Woodberry. But where had that gotten them? Each of them allowed their 'special position' with the Governor get to their head, let them believe it wasn't always 100% his call, and over the last week Martinez had watched as he killed each and every one of them.

No he knew that if he couldn't get the Gov to let him go by casually suggesting it, he had to take the man out. No hesitating, no arguing, no bullshit. Just one swift shot to the head when he wasn't paying attention. He'd actually been considering it all night, ever since the fallen leader had showed himself to be such a liability.

Finally, unable to wait any longer, he started getting ready to head out. He had paid enough attention when they were in the prison two days ago to remember where the infirmary was, detached from the rest of their living quarters. He was hoping with all the new people the place would be something of a madhouse, and he might be able to slip in and get there without being noticed. If the apocalypse had trained him for anything it was how to mercilessly and quietly kill humans, and he was confident that if he did get seen by anyone in the winding corridors of the prison, he could drop them before they raised the alarm.

After he armed himself fully, he turned to Shup and his old leader.

"Going on a supply run. Can't make it much longer if we ain't got food and meds. I'll be back soon."

He hoped that the simple logic in his stated plan would be innocuous enough to satisfy the Governor. When the man made no move to stop him, and actually failed to acknowledge him almost entirely, he threw a few more things into his backpack and then walked over to Shup where he was reclining weakly.

"I'll be right back. Hold shit down here, I'll see you in a few hours."

His friend nodded solemnly, but the look in his eyes made it clear that he highly doubted that both of them would live to see dawn. Shup had run through his emergency insulin that morning, and now nothing but constant careful ingestion of sugar would keep diabetic shock at bay.

With that in mind Martinez marched over to the truck and ripped open the driver's side door. He'd get the insulin, no matter how many of those prison shits he had to take out in the process.

"Martinez!" the Governor yelled as he turned the key in the ignition. He held his breath, and switched the safety off on the pistol he had strapped to his waste, ready to take the man down if he started putting up a protest.

"Yeah boss?" He said, with as relaxed a voice as he could manage.

"Shumpert needs what you're getting fast. Hurry back, I'd hate to have to put him down while you were gone."

To someone who didn't know the Governor, that would've sounded like a statement of genuine, if apocalypse-tinted, concern, but to Martinez, who knew how the man operated, it was a threat, loud and clear. No fucking around.

"Yessir," he responded, nodding seriously. And with that he tore out of their camp and started making his way towards the prison.

Three hours later he made his way through the rubble of the broken side of the prison, taking out a walker every few minutes. Before they had attacked the prison a few days before, Allen, the only member of Tyreese's group that had proved himself worth a shit, had showed them the back way into the prison. The Governor had decided against attacking that way, reasoning that the swarm of walkers who had made their way into the unused part of the prison were more dangerous to their untrained civilian soldiers than the prison survivors.

At the time, Martinez had agreed with him, but now he wished they'd gone by Allen's plan. Eager to prove himself, the grieving father had suggested going in through the back and then making for the roof access instead of trying to fight their way through the tombs. Because guards had patrolled the roof when the prison was still in use, he reasoned, there would be a number of access points, which would allow them to get in undetected with minimal causalities. Back then, they'd been too arrogant to sneak, but Martinez wasn't about to make that mistake twice.

He got into the stairwell without too much difficulty and was able to fight his way up to the roof after about half an hour of heavy fighting. The geeks were still a threat in his mind, and definitely not something to underestimate, but after all this time he'd learned to be almost methodical with them. It was humans he feared now, humans and the inevitable problem of scarcity once they ran through everything that had been made Before.

He used to hate those pussy science teachers at his school who would go on for days about eco-footprints and sustainability standards and all that other shit, but now he had to admit that there was something to be said for providing your own power. Maybe after this shit was over he and Shup could make for Todd Miller's house, he remembered the AP Bio teacher bragging to some romance obsessed literature student teacher about the solar panels he'd had installed on his roof.

But for now, he had to focus on the task at hand, and with one last head blow, he felled the last of the walkers on the stairwell and pushed open the hatch to the roof. Around him the tar roof stretched out, mercifully walker and guard free. He was in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Short but beginning to get into it- post more soon!**

Chapter 3

-Beth-

She was trying not to roll her eyes as she made her way to the infirmary, unwillingly accompanied by Noah, one of the new Woodberry refugees. His mom, Karen, was a quick favorite among the older members of her group- she'd been the one who led them back to Woodberry and got them in without and bloodshed, and she had been friendly with Andrea. The thought of Andrea still caused a lump in her throat. The least she could do was be civil to her friend's son.

The problem was that Noah wanted her to be more than civil. Beth understood that young people gravitated towards each other these days in ways they hadn't before. Her and Carl were much closer than she would've been with any unrelated thirteen year old before the outbreak. But where her and Carl had become close, both dealing with the unkind realities of having to grow up far before their time, Noah, her junior by three years, was both young AND sheltered.

His innocence annoyed her, in part because she thought it was dangerous, and in part because she envied it. He had insisted on walking her to the infirmary for her protection, and then had neglected to bring a weapon. She knew she should be politely flattered by his attentions, but she just found them annoying and distracting. With the exception of Karen, Tyreese, and Sasha, she saw most of these new people as nothing but a strain on their resources and another inevitable heart break when they died off. She'd had enough heartbreak, she wasn't interested in new people, only keeping those she was already attached to alive for as long as possible.

She was shaken out of her introspection by Noah's desperate attempts to catch her attention. He was looking at her expectantly, clearly having just asked her a question.

"Sorry, I was distracted- what'd you say?" She said, as politely as she could manage.

"I said what do you do for fun around here? I'm brought most of my stash with me from Woodberry, but Joe says that cop guy made him leave his plant behind so now all we got is an ounce for the rest of the fuckin' apocalypse."

Beth tried to keep herself from rolling her eyes. Weed. While they were here preparing to get exterminated by the people from this kid's town, he'd been rolling joints and hiding from his mother. Great.

"I don't really smoke or drink much, with Lori gone I'm usually taking care of Judith most of the time."

"Oh," he said, face betraying his total disinterest, "That blows. Don't worry though, with all the women we brought with us, you're not gonna have to do that anymore. I bet one of them would even adopt her if you guys wanted, I swear it's like they're fascinated with babies nowadays."

He said it with utter nonchalance, but the thought turned Beth's stomach. She didn't know these fucking people, and she was NOT ok with Judith getting passed around like some kind of mascot for human survival to make a bunch of strangers feel good. They should be satisfied with the fact that they weren't dead, and other than that keep to themselves. The thought that at this very moment some of them might be lining up to take over from her and Carol almost made her turn back and run to the cell block right then and there.

"No, I like doing it, really I do." She ground out, picking up the pace a little, desperate to reach the infirmary and get this farce of a conversation over with.

"That's because you're so sweet." He said, stepping in front of her and leaning in awkwardly. He was skinny, and clearly still a young teen, but even though he had the body of an adolescent he still towered over her petite frame.

"And because the world went to shit you feel like you gotta take care of everyone. But who's gonna take care of you?"

'It sure as fuck won't be you,' she thought to himself, leaning away awkwardly. He seemed to take the hint, because he leaned back slightly, looking deflated.

"Just think about it. I'm tougher than I look. I mean I survived this long didn't-"

But whatever he was going to say was cut off as a blow from a baseball bat connected with the side of his head, and he crumpled to the ground.

Before she could scream, Beth found herself pinned up against a wall- Caesar Martinez's hand covering her mouth.

"One sound bitch, and I'll drop you as fast as I did the kid, got it?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you all for your reviews! Annalise, GhostWriter84 I agree with you- I think that Martinez definitely doesn't get enough attention on this sight or is always cast as kind of pure dumb and evil. I wanted to do something a little bit different, and I also always thought Shumpert (his sidekick in the TV series) looked like a nicer guy than his actions showed. There's a couple of times when he seems a bit torn about it too, so I wanted to give them both a reason to act the way they do.**

**This chapter gets into it more- hope you enjoy!  
**

Chapter 4

-Martinez-

He could feel her heart pounding hard under the forearm he had pressed up against her neck. He'd never seen this girl, which must mean she was one of the original prison crew. He'd heard the boy's pathetic attempts to catch her attention as they made their ways loudly down the hall.

Noah. He'd hated that unappreciative sniveling little shit the whole time he and his mom had been at Woodberry. He still remembered the fight he had with Karen about him becoming a soldier. She wanted a fucking opt out because he had asthma. It wasn't that he thought that the kid was well suited for the task of defending the town- far from it- it was his mom's fucking presumption that they didn't have to do anything to contribute and were just owed protection. How bad does your asthma have to be for you to be incapable of standing on a fucking wall and aiming a gun at walkers? It couldn't have been that bad if the little shit was blazing up whenever he felt like it.

Still part of him was glad he hadn't been with them that day, hadn't gotten gunned down by the Governor in his sick rage. As much as he thought the kid's mom was a pain in the ass, he felt shitty about the way she died. It must have been pity over that that kept him from hitting the kid full strength. He'd have a bad concussion after that blow, but he'd survive.

He could tell from the look in Blondie's eyes that she didn't know that. She was looking at him with a look of fear, defiance, and hatred from under her extra-long eyelashes. No wonder this group had fought tooth and nail to keep the Gov at bay. As much as he tried to forget it, he remembered pulling one of their group members topless out of her holding cell after the Governor had gone in to 'interrogate' her. As ruthless as he was, the thought of forcing women turned his stomach. He'd had a daughter afterall, and if he were the men of this group he would've done anything to keep this wide eyed innocent away from men who'd hurt her.

But he wasn't a man of this group, and protecting her wasn't his prerogative- getting his stolen insulin back to Shup was. And that made this girl a liability. What he should have done, what he would've done if he hadn't gotten lost in those eyes, is taken her out with the bat like he did the boy and the Woodberry traitor he ran into in the infirmary. One, the traitor, was definitely dead, and though he'd spared the boy from a death blow, the occasional stray walker might still find him before anyone else did. He wasn't ready to take that risk with Blondie, and he hated himself for his lapse in ruthlessness, but that was that.

"Walk. Not a fucking sound- you understand me?" he said, pushing her towards his escape route. He'd bring her up onto the roof, bind her and gag her and then let her go so she was far enough away from the others for him to escape before she told them he was there, he decided. He tried to convince himself it was a rational risk as he went, but he knew it was a startling crack in the shell of detachment he'd been crafting since the loss of his family. He couldn't help but think it would hurt his chances for survival in the end.

They had made it onto the roof already when they heard shouts coming from the vicinity of the infirmary. They must have found the body and the boy. They wouldn't know it was him right away though, he reasoned- the prison people might think they have a traitor in their midst. The biggest problem think he had working against him was this fucking girl. As long as they didn't realize she was missing yet they might not send out a search party.

Just as he'd finished reassuring himself that he wasn't fucked, Blondie made her move. She'd been walking in front of him meekly, breathing softly into the gag he'd fit her with her arms bound behind her back. During the walk up he began to think he hadn't needed to bother with the restraints after all when she sprang into action. As soon as she heard a door bust open and angry voices in the courtyard she twisted free of him and ran over to the ventilation shaft, kicking it with all her might and screaming against her gag.

"The fuck is that sound?"

He grabbed her bodily by the arms and began hauling her towards the stairwell he had come in through, but it was too late.

"Who's that on the roof?"

"It almost looks like Martinez!"

Bullets whizzed by them as one of the people in the courtyard opened fire. He pulled Blondie the last few yards, threw open the hatch, checked quickly to see no new walkers had gotten into the stairwell, and pulled her down after him.

Her little stunt had shot his original plan to shit. By the time they reached the exit her people could already be waiting for them, and if that were true, nothing but his accidental hostage would get him out and back to Shup alive.

He was going to have to take the girl.


End file.
